legoland

We took the girls to Waco Children's Museum, but first we had to make a stop at their special exhibit - Lego Land Castle World. It did not take much convincing to get Daddy on board with this family day.

new job

I was offered a position four days a week as a fitness consultant at the Y.  I am so excited, I begin August 2nd.  Come see me!!!  I will be the one in the staff shirt with the potbelly!!! 

new look

If you follow us via google reader, you may be missing out... after a year we finally achieved the look we have been working on!!  Also poll on the left, 3 for 3 or 2 to 1.  Voting closes Monday at 9 am, we find out at 9:30.  Will have to see.

special delivery

Our homeschool kindergarten curriculum arrived in the mail tonight. I have never heard the word "cool" come out of a 4 year old in one setting more in my entire life. The first thing out of the box - an ant farm, second, a butterfly garden, then a book about dinosaurs and then their readers. Both of them were ohhing and ahhing, Emery even got in on the action. I let them upon the Cuisennaire Rods and explore, but wanted everything to be new and exciting when we start school after her birthday. Cannot wait!

kindergartener

I cannot believe in a few short weeks I am going to have a kindergartener.  When I was teaching, kinder and 1st was my favorite ages to teach.  There has not really been a doubt that we would ever homeschool the girls, but we definitely weighed multiple options and prayed countless prayers before making our decision.  Because I have so much curriculum and supplies for teaching this age I just figured I would create something for the girls.  When we found out we were having a baby mid-school year I was concerned I would need to have everything ready before baby #3 arrives or that I would slack b/c of Mommy duties.  Since LE is already reading CVC words I struggled with "the make sure she gets what she needs" mentality, but knew we must be doing something right for her to be doing so well without any formal education.  Recently Ben and I attended CHEACT for central Texas homeschoolers.  It was downtown Austin and we were running late and missed the first 25 minutes of the one presentation I absolutely wanted to listen in on - Hands-on learning for kindergarten and first grade.  I love the whole idea of Classical Education for homeschoolers, but knew that was not what my kiddo needed this early.  Within 3 minutes, I was choking back the preggo tears and knew this was the program for our girls (at least in the beginning years).  Ben agreed.  She is so excited too, both of the girls are as we ordered Bella her own pre-kindergarten curriuclum so that she is not doing LE's work before she is ready and does not want to do her work when it is actually time for her to do so.  We are all so excited and so relieved that the Lord so clearly showed us this is "the one" for our family.  I love that Ben is just as excited and ready to play his role too.

pic of the day

This was the shot of the day, that I had to make sure you caught it out of the collage.  (I also had my mom's camera, so I took a lot more photos with her's b/c it is not so obnoxious looking - hopefully she will blog some of her's too).  Everyone was so grateful for the change and the opportunity to choose something to eat.  We had multiple types of drinks and an assortment of chips.  The chip of choice - BBQ.  Isn't it crazy the things we take for granted each day?  Once again I say thank you.   
Next outreach - July 25th.  Hoping to take deodorant for all, will do hot dogs again b/c of cost and the amount of condiments I have left.

hot dog outreach

We had the most memorable 4th of July this year. Ben and I took the girls, Lindsay, Troy, my mom and some friends I have known since we moved to Austin 10 years ago with us downtown to serve hot dogs. My mom sent out an e-mail to everyone she knew and the biggest outreach was on. We collected enough money to purchase chips, drinks, hot dogs and condiments for 240 people and a new table. She collected a garbage bag full of socks (that still was not enough), we had jeans 36x30 that the men were so grateful for. Three ladies who I never have clothes for were in Heaven with their selection of clothing. I had enough Bibles, that I brought 3 home. I was able to set up a men's table and women's table to "shop". My girls served hot dogs, my brother commented how surprisingly grateful everyone was, Lindsay never stopped smiling, all were blessed. It was the best day I have had downtown and I basically just got to stand back and watch it happen. I am so grateful to all of you who contributed and to all who have contributed in the past.
I have set aside a large shelf in our garage that I am continually collecting items for. I have loads of winter stuff already and starting collections of toiletries. I had several requests that I would like to pass on. I met Carl this weekend. He is in need of a backpack and sleeping bag, everything was stolen. Red needs some size 4 jeans. Michael requested a pair of size 12 shoes and we received requests for Spanish Bibles.  If you ever clean out or see a great deal on items, please call me and I would be happy to take things off your hands. I also have room in my kitchen for multiple bodies to make 250 hot dogs on a Sunday morning if you ever want to join us.
On a side note - the blessings came pouring in that Saturday that we all knew the Lord's hand was on this particular outreach. The Butter Krust Store had the exact number of buns needed - 31 pkgs on sale for 78 cents each. Cases of drinks were buy 3 get 4th free at grocery store. Chips were on sale, and they had the exact number of bags needed.

4th of July

On Saturday morning, the rains stopped and we were ble to head over to Marcus and Anna's for a little pre-fourth of July bash. There was hot dogs, sprinklers, pool, and lemonade for all, Wii for the Daddies and catching up time for the Mommies. Bella enjoyed herself a little too much.

budding artists

                                 Princess Landry and Pooh Bear

new chef in town

When I was teaching I bought a kids in the kitchen cookbook that had been packed up until the move. I found it recently and gave it to LE to "play" with. She started looking at the pictures and decided she wanted to cook something for dinner. Last week, she made chicken, broccoli, rice and cheese casserole (not out of book - just what we had on hand) and she ate two helpings - she does not eat rice EVER, cooked cheese or cooked broccoli for that matter. This week she has made strawberry cupcakes - (kind of adapted b/c did not want the sugar in cupcakes so we did shortcakes) and nachos - she does not eat strawberries and I guess has decided melted cheese is not bad after all. Tonight, she is making Taco Grande - which she also read the words to me "taco grand"
*for those who have asked she will be homeschooled, blogpost coming up soon about that. Must go make "Taco Grand"